


we learned the sea

by leiascully



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Community: dogdaysofsummer, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-07-27
Updated: 2006-07-27
Packaged: 2017-10-03 07:09:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leiascully/pseuds/leiascully
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I dreamed we were otters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we learned the sea

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Title from Dar Williams' "The Sea".  
> Disclaimer: _Harry Potter_ and all related characters are the property of JK Rowling and Scholastic. No profit is made from this work and no infringement is intended.

_I dreamed we were otters_, said Sirius, who surfaced very suddenly from sleep to push his cool nose against Remus' neck.

_Mmm_, said Remus, ineloquent with sleep, _otters_. The pillow muted his t's into d's and Sirius thought: _odders, fair enough_.

_We swam in this dark river_, Sirius insisted. _I brought you a fish, a big shiny one. The biggest fish. And you had little round ears._ He touched the tender rims of Remus' ears under the longish hair. The triumph of the dream salmon was still bright like neon in his veins, and he pressed against Remus with midnight desire.

_Mmph_, Remus said, and rolled over, and his body flexed against Sirius', otter-lithe as he had been in the dream, and otter-brown in the dim of their bedroom. _It's probably because we had salmon for supper._

They moved over and under each other in the bed like slippery water creatures, damp with sweat in the summer heat. When Sirius moaned, it was the ripple of the river, and when Remus gasped, it was wind in the reeds, and their hands played over skin like water through grass and weeds. The room was dark and the air seemed thicker and warmer than usual: Sirius could almost feel the weight of it, like water, and Remus' kisses were breaths of something cooler and fresh.

_Do otters mate for life?_ he asked later when his breathing was slower again, and Remus kissed his ear and muttered that he didn't know, that he loved Sirius.

Sirius slept again, and dreamed again of otters, himself and Remus safe in their den under the river with no sun and no moon to trouble them, and no stars glinting hard reminders of destinies he'd surrendered.

In the morning he went and watched the river for hours, but his sins had not been washed away.


End file.
